The first novel was written in 1963, but was not published until 1971. The series was originally written by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy, but the new series is written by Warren Murphy and Jim Mullaney. The first series is officially 145 books long, then the authors retitled the series the 'New Destroyer' and switched publishers. The second series is 4 books long so far. The older books in this Action-Adventure/Martial Arts series tend to not be found in bookstores but are easy enough to find online in large lots by auction or one at a time from book warehousers, and often contain cigarette advertisements actually bound right into the middle of the books.

Tropes:

Angry Black Man: Butler of 12-"Slave Safari" is seeking revenge on the descendents of the families who enslaved his ancestors.

Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Happens almost any time Remo encounters a girl who believes that the government is doing this figuratively to a minority group and ardently pleads with him to do it physically to them.

Carnival of Killers: The Last Alchemist had an interesting variation of this. The Dragon as part of his backstory, participated in an open contract on a crimelord. After he killed the target, he was given a job as the personal assassin of the Big Bad who had placed the contract simply to find a suitable person for the position. The trope appeared in a few other books in the series as well.

Catch Phrase: "That's the biz, sweetheart." Also, if you're good enough to kill Remo, "I am created Shiva the Destroyer; Death, the shatterer of worlds! The dead night tiger made whole by the master of Sinanju. WHO IS THIS DOGMEAT THAT CHALLENGES ME?!" may be the last thing you ever hear.

Does Not Like Guns: Chiun, and by extension Remo. They consider them toys for children, not proper weapons for assassins. Considering the abilities Sinjanu mastery has given them, they're right.

Easy Amnesia: Remo has a bullet graze his temple in 008 - Summit Chase, leading to multiple Amnesia Tropes:

Criminal Amnesia / Amnesiac Liar: Remo kills professional killer PJ Kenny at the beginning of the book and takes his identity. Maggie helpfully provides him with the cover story he gave her after he lost his memory and he decides he really is a professional killer. Which, of course, he is, albeit for the good guys.

Expy: Many Expies from Vox News to the aforementioned Dream Thing. Many of these expies are Strawmen, especially under the authorship of Will Murray and Jim Mullaney.

Fun with Acronyms: Averted because CURE isn't an acronym. However, also played straight with some of the various organizations that Remo goes after.

Highly-Visible Ninja: Largely averted. When Remo and Chiun stalk, they usually just wear dark loose-fitting clothing and apply blacking to their faces. When actual ninja show up in the books, they're usually in civilian garb, although once or twice, they're seen on night missions in "black linen".

Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Most people who meet Remo die, either because they're the villains, they get in the way of the villains, or Dr. Smith orders Remo to kill them to hide the existence of CURE.

Master of Your Domain: Part of Sinanju is supreme self-awareness, allowing one to do such things as regulate body temperature so as to be comfortable in short sleeves in subzero weather.

Mind Rape: What Remo eventually does to Jeremiah Purcell after he killed Remo's wife. He is left completely mentally broken and only slightly conscious for the majority of the later books.

Misanthrope Supreme: Chiun is bigoted against (in descending order of vitriol) the Chinese; anyone who isn't Asian; any Asians who aren't Korean or Chinese; any Koreans who aren't from the village of Sinanju; any Sinanju villagers who aren't Chiun.

Morning Sickness: In 032 - Killer Chromosones, villain Sheila Feinberg knows she's successfully been impregnated after she starts throwing up her food. Seven days after beginning attempts at conception. She's later shown to be completely wrong with the nausea being the result of her body rejecting her modifications.

Playing with Fire: The villain in Firing Line has this power. So does the recurring villain The Dutchman. The fact he has this ability along with being trained in Sinanju and being very Ax-Crazy makes him very scary.

Professional Killer: Remo and Chiun. The House of Sinanju is a line of assassins dating back to ancient times. There are a number of other "houses" of assassins that Remo and Chiun encounter, generally influenced in the distance past by training by a master of Sinanju. Said houses are almost always destroyed by the end of the book.

Rogues Gallery: While most villains ended up dead at the end of the novel, Remo does have a few recurring villains: Nuihc, The Dutchman, Mr. Gordons, FRIEND, Uncle Sam Beasley, The Master (no not that one), Elizu Roote, and Kali, to name the vast majority of them.

Although there are a large number of "houses" of assassins that Remo and Chiun encounter who possess some aspect of Sinanju, either from observation or from being trained by a past Sinanju master. These assassins are always superhumanly capable, but utterly inferior to Remo and Chiun.

Sex God: In one of the books it's noted that Remo can use his knowledge of Sinanju to bring any woman to orgasm by touching her pressure points in a specific order.

Somewhat subverted, in that while it's great for his partner, Remo's sex life has become mechanical and boring.

Especially since Remo has yet to find a woman frigid enough to not become a sex-crazed monster at step twenty. Out of thirty-seven. One should probably presume that executing all thirty-seven steps in sequence will resuscitate a coma victim.

Although at one point, it's established that especially butch lesbians are unaffected due to being too masculine.

Shoutout: In 008 - Summit Chase, Remo walks through a room of hired killers and asks one how Mack Bolan is doing.

Those Wacky Nazis: Three books feature a Neo-Nazi organization called "Four" due to their desire for eventually building a Fourth Reich.

Too Fast to Stop: Remo takes himself out this way in one of the early books, delivering a strike which requires precise timing. His target faints in shock and the lack of resistance causes Remo to dislocate his shoulder. Occasionally, he'll note the extreme control and precise timing needed to practice the art without injuring the wielder, it seldom comes up after the first incident.

Torture Always Works: When Remo or Chiun put people into extreme pain, whether through nerve bundles or broken bones, the information is almost always correct. When Remo asks nicely for information, he always gets lies. This is helped by the fact that Remo and Chiun are both Living Lie Detectors which helps with the torture.

Twin Switch: Kojing and Kojong, twin sons of a previous Master of Sinanju; their mother feared their father would kill one of them to prevent this trope, so she hid one before he found out they were twins. They subsequently switched places every day of their lives, both learning Sinanju; when their father died, Kojong left the village and swore never to use his art for profit. Kojong wound up settling in Arizona, and became Remo's ancestor.

Withholding the Cure: In 016 - Oil Slick, it's implied that the oil companies routinely suppress research into fuel alternatives by killing off scientists.

Both in the theatrical film and the TV pilot. Really, considering both were produced in the the 1980s and after The Karate Kid became a smash hit with Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi, the producers simply should have known better.

In-universe, when Chiun writes a movie about his life, he claims he wants Paul Newman to play the part of Chiun with some makeup to "fix his funny-looking eyes".

TV Tropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy